One of the drawbacks of prior art band saw blades, particularly band saw blades that are used to cut difficult-to-cut materials, such as tool steels, stainless steels, nickel-based alloys, or other hardened or work hardened materials and/or materials that exhibit relatively high shear stress, is that the blade life is not as long as desired and/or the blades do not cut the materials as straight as desired. Current band saw blade designs attempt to overcome these drawbacks by using two distinct methodologies. One approach has been to apply extreme rake angles to traditional tooth/set geometries, without differentiating between “kerf-generating” and “non-kerf-generating” tooth features. Another approach has been to incorporate a “radius” feature on the rake face to capture the chips. Although these methodologies can be moderately effective when the blades are new, and therefore relatively sharp, they have significant drawbacks. The first methodology leads to rapid tool wear due to the use of relatively aggressive, “self-feeding” geometries on the rake faces of kerf-generating teeth. This approach tends to fracture or “chip-out” these teeth in an uncontrolled, unpredictable manner. With the second methodology, on the other hand, the full-contact radius feature allows for an extended tool-chip interface region that leads to increased cutting forces and higher heat generation back into the tool which, in turn, leads to more rapid wear than desired.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome one or more of the above-described drawbacks and/or disadvantages of the prior art.